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Microdrive Technology Rebounds Thanks to iPod Mini

Posted by timothy on from the 4-gigs-for-cheap dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A few years ago Richard Menta over at MP3 Newswire did a lengthy review on the IBM Microdrive and declared it would significantly alter the MP3 portable market if IBM did one thing - drop the price. That never happened and it prompted Menta last year to declare the iPod's more cost effective Toshiba drive made it moot and he put the Microdrive on his 2002 MP3 loser list. Since then the drive technology was acquired by Hitachi who convinced to Apple to use it for the iPod Mini. The Mini's recent success prompted Menta to revisit his previous write-off. Interesting view of the up and down travils of any technology and how each change can have dramatic effect on its success and failure."

6 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Pretty annoying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I just bought a 4 GB Microdrive on eBay for $299, before running across this article that explains how to get a 4 GB Microdrive for $50 less than the going eBay price by buying and taking apart an iPod Mini.

    Apparently all of the 4 GB Microdrives on eBay were obtained precisely this way.... which may explain why the iPod Mini has sold out everywhere despite being a relatively-bad deal compared to the 15 GB model. Hitachi is clearly selling these drives to Apple at or near a loss, for whatever strange reason.

  2. Hrmm by TheKidWho · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hrmm... this got me thinking... Is it possible to replace the 4gb iPod Mini HD with one of those new 8gb CF cards?

  3. Versus "normal" hard drive based mp3 players? by dnobel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does anybody know if these smaller microdrive based mp3 players are less prone to damage due to physical shock versus an ipod or nomad zen like device?

    1. Re:Versus "normal" hard drive based mp3 players? by CAlworth1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      >>I have never heard of anyone breaking an iPod by jogging with it.

      Nor have I, and I have owned two, and know probably 20 to 30 people with them, and have never heard of any hard drive failures. Battery problems, perhaps, but these are regular computer users with very little idea about what they should expect from a product, so they keep buying. Short of near-catastrophic failure, they aren't going to quit using them, or quit suggesting them any time soon I think.

  4. How crash resistant are microdrives? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm always wondering if these drives can experience crashing or data corruption if it gets hit hard while it's running? Is it really a spinning hard drive or is it something else?

  5. "Thanks" to iPod? by Dan+East · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Perhaps the reason Microdrives fell out of favor wasn't just the price point. With the exception of raw data transfer speed, solid state Flash memory is superior in every way. Portable devices are battery constrained, subjected to extraordinarily rough treatment and great temperature extremes. Flash memory is many times better than MicroDrive in all those critical areas.

    Finally, Microdrives are fading away because flash memory capacities have been increasing as their cost decreases (in addition to the hardware advantages). All we are seeing here with the iPod Microdrives is a temporary reduction in cost-per-byte over flash memory. This artificial bubble will not last, and flash memory will (continue to) dominate in the long run.

    Dan East

    --
    Better known as 318230.